Riding buddies, what's your story?

[AZJW]

@Hollybrook noted in a post yesterday about a ride he took with a friend with whom he'd been riding with for 50 years. It got me to thinking about my best friend ( Mark) who I've been riding dirt with since 9 years old. That puts us at 59 years of riding together ( you do the math on my age)  so needless to say, we have a lot of ride time together.   In all those years of riding little 50cc Hondas all the way up to our current fire breathing 500cc stuff, one thing has remained constant,  we have a blast! Our families have vacationed together with our kids and have had more than a few Thanksgiving dinners in the desert. Of course dirtbikes were present and it was tough prying everyone off of them to start the turkey feast!

 

A byproduct of all that seat time is that we've developed a 6th sense as to what & when the other is going to do. Having ridden no doubt thousands of miles of 2 track side by side ( to keep out of each other's dust) we've learned to give way when the other's track is too gnarly to get through.  Obviously single track is different,  although we still follow each other extremely closely.  Mainly to try and minimize dust, but it's also a macho/ competitive thing with the lead trying (unconsciously?) to lose the trailer.  It makes for great fun blasting into blind corners only to slam on the brakes to keep from rear ending the leader who found an unexpected obstacle to negotiate. 

 

One two track memory was a group of 5 of us, to include Mark & my eldest son, rode down to the Tuloumne River ( near Groveland, CA) and back up the north side to Cherry Lake. When we got there, two of the group said they'd had enough dirt and wanted to ride pavement back to the truck. We accepted the challenge ( along with my son) and decided to race them back via the dirt road/trail to the truck, all on DRZ-400's. We all blasted off in our respective directions and to my son, it was pretty evident that Mark and I were going for broke to beat those guys. He saw us swapping sides of the two track when the other guy's line was not good and decided that the dust was too much to hang with us and dropped back, probably the smartest of the group!  We got back to the truck, with the other two nowhere in sight and a minute or so later my son showed up and yelled " you guys are crazy"!  The other two showed up enough behind us that we'd already gotten our bikes loaded and gotten our boots off. Great fun ribbing them about being slow and laughing about how we'd cheated yet another trip to the ER.

 

We still ride together , having just spent a couple of days tearing up the granite dust in the Mammoth Mtn area.  It's a real blessing to still be able to ride together at our " advanced" ages and we still have a blast!   Link is to our latest trip. 

 

https://youtu.be/qI3LhDiDYcY?si=1uA9AMhmvFU7b36C

 

What's your riding buddy story?

 

Edit: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my oldest who also has a T7 & 450EXC. We terrorize the trails together and he's become quite the good rider, says his proud Pop.  Only thing is, he doesn't fall nearly as much as I do, so probably isn't having as much fun!

 

[maddog123]

Very cool for you age... I hope I can rip around that hard once I get to your age.

Due to my work scheduled I mostly ride by myself and I also hate loosing time waiting and contacting friends to make plans so I just go, I sometime go out with one of my buddy but I am a much superior driver then him so mine as well say I ride by myself when I am with him but we still have a blast also he is too chicken to ride side by side... a other buddy of mine just bought a KTM 890 but I haven't had the time to ride with him, maybe next year.   

[DT675]

Wow my riding buddy story would look a little like @AZJW .  I had a friend that I rode with as a kid a little bit, who introduced me to his acquaintance that ended up becoming my best riding buddy over the years.  Back then we rode the crap out of DRZ 400’s, rode a lot of miles together like they were a couple race bikes.  We did trails, highways, single track and the sand dunes of Idaho.  We both had a “raising kids/ careers” hiatus in which we didn't stay too much in contact.  Then we kind of found each other again later on in life (I'm not actually that “late on” in life yet, life just kinda happened early to me).  

 

We started riding together again, me on my Triumph Street Triple 675, him on his Ducati Monster.  It was like we never missed a beat.  I kept my Street Triple and picked up my T7.  He saw how much fun I was having on it (and loves a good adventure) and sold his Monster for a Triumph Tiger 800.  We do alot of riding together and I also do alot solo.  Our skills are close enough but he sometimes has a harder time keeping up on the heavier Tiger and I think he may be quietly looking at adding a second bike.. someday… Can't wait to see what the next decade brings!

[Alter Ego]

What a great topic!  I did the math and I've been throwing a leg over a bike for 47 years.

 

Reflecting back I realized I had experienced so many groups of people I could call riding buddies and/or groups of buddies spanning those 47 years. We did everything one could do on a bike; MX, enduro, hare scrambles, hill climbing, etc. But no street riding, that came much later. The story for me has been all those groups and people involved never lasted. We would have a good run for a few years but then everyone would just disband, do other things and pursue new interest. Later on new people would enter the picture, new friendships would develop, and the cycle would start over again. The one constant through all that has been my brother. He arrived later in the motorcycle scene but once he was in he would be the constant that outlasted everyone else.

 

Back in 2008 I sold my dirt bikes, bought a KLR, and switched over to dual sport and adv riding. Since then I've made a career of exploring the Ouachita and Ozark Mountain region in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Once again my brother and I met other DS riders and a team developed. For several years we explored every back road highway and every trail that didn't have a gate on it. The most epic trip for us was a 3 day excursion on what is know as the Ktrail. It's a 98 mile back country stretch on some of the nastiest terrain you can find in my part of the country. Rock gardens, boulders, wash-outs, off-cambers, Crazy hill climbs, and water crossings that are so long you can't see the end from the beginning, and deep and murky enough to have no idea on the depth. There were 4 KLR's and 1 DR400 in the group. Ktrail is more suited for smaller dirt bikes with experienced dirt riders. We all had the experience but these large loaded down bikes were definitely creating some anxiety. Long story short we arrived at the end 2 days later. There were some drops and a few get offs but we all made it without injury or bike problems. On the trail we saw black bear, bald eagles, wild hogs, and I actually caught a glimpse of an animal that seriously defies explanation.

 

Like the others this group has since disbanded and went our separate ways. I sold the KLR at 20,000 miles and went with the T7 back in 2022. I'm older and slower but still loving every minute of saddle time. Good times!

 

There are so many great shared stories and experiences riding with all of those guys over my career. I believe motorcycling really does create a special brotherhood among the group. Even though I may never see some of these people from the past we still have all those great shared experiences and some great stories we could tell.

[maddog123]

One time I had a falcon who flew next to me for 2km probably the best riding buddy I had...  lol ... I wish I had a goPro for that ride it was pretty cool    

[AZJW]

2 hours ago, maddog123 said:

One time I had a falcon who flew next to me for 2km probably the best riding buddy I had...  lol ... I wish I had a goPro for that ride it was pretty cool    

I had a similar experience with a red tail hawk while hang gliding 3,000 above Tollhouse, CA in the 70's. It was one of those experiences you remember like yesterday and I hope I never forget it.

[ninot7]

Riding buddies are important. Solo riding is importanter. I do both, and i must say i enjoy solo riding way more for various reasons.